


Meeting You For The First Time

by Masterless



Category: Eyewitness (US TV)
Genre: Prequel to Silver Shimmer but can be read as it's own story
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-31
Updated: 2017-01-31
Packaged: 2018-09-21 01:58:39
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,003
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9526841
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Masterless/pseuds/Masterless
Summary: Philip is a small merboy who meets and befriends Lukas.It's a prequel to The Silver Shimmer, but can be read on its own.





	

Philip had never had any friends. His mother was a junkie, his father was MIA, and he didn't have any other family. His tail was silver, not the dull browns and greys of the rest of his people, those who could hide in plain sight. Philip’s tail would catch attention, his mother said, and he would get into trouble. 

When Philip was young, he would go with his mother to buy her drugs, met the vile mer named Ryan Kane, and tried very hard to stay out of sight. When that didn't happen, he just stopped going altogether.

“No, I'll just stay here and play,” Philip would say if his mum asked if he wanted to go with her.

“Okay, sweetie, just don't swim too close to the shore,” Anne replied, stroking her sons hair.

Philip never did as he was told. He always swam too close to the shore, watching the human boys and girls play in the surf and sand. He wanted to play, too, but he had never gotten the hang of transforming his tail into legs. He knew that it came second nature to some, and to others it never happened. He wanted to play, so he practiced every day, but by the time he got his legs to work, the families would be gone for the winter.

One year, there was a blond boy playing in the waves in the middle of winter. The splashing had caught Philip’s attention, he could hear it from very far below the water. It was cold and he swam sluggishly, fighting off sleep. The merfolk didn't hibernate, a word he had learned from listening to parents explain why the birds were leaving to their children. They slept a lot more in the winter months though, curled up in their deep sea caves and snuggled for warmth. Only Philip’s mum hadn't come back from meeting with Ryan yet, and he didn't want to go to sleep without her.

When he reached the surface, Philip saw the blond boy, about his age, paddling barefoot in the water, laughing and screaming when the waves roughed his feet.

“Lukas!” a man's voice bellowed. “Come inside, you'll catch cold!”

“But Dad!” Lukas complained. “I wanna play!”

“Well, too bad! Get back in here!”

Philip watched the boy run away from the water.  
It was a few months before Philip saw the blond boy again. He was sitting on the dock behind the big yellow house, picking at the loose wood, and crying. Philip watched him from afar, but drifted closer as the hours went on. The summer heat was in full blast, but Lukas didn't seem to notice. He let out quiet sobs and brushed his eyes with the back of his hand, sniffling deeply.

“Why are you crying?” Philip asked before he could stop himself.

Lukas looked around, and then crawled forward to look down into the water.

“Hi,” Philip said. “What’s up?”

Lukas shook his head. “My mum just died.”

Philip braced his hands on the dock and hoisted himself up, using almost all of his energy to transform his tail into legs.

“I'm sorry,” Philip said. “That must suck.”

Lukas nodded. “I miss my mummy.”

Philip wrapped his arms around Lukas, resting his head on Lukas’ shoulder. “It's okay to cry.”

From then on, the two boys were almost always together. Swimming, talking, playing games on the beach and on the water.

“Marco!” Lukas yelled.

“Polo!” Philip giggled.

It was a great feeling for both the boys. Philip had a friend, and Lukas had a distraction. His distraction was a new friend, but he was a distraction nonetheless. 

***

“Philip, sweetie,” Anne said one day, twisting her hands together. “Come here, sweetie.”

So Philip did, a concerned frown on his face.

“Hey, there's my boy.” 

Philip could tell she was high, but he didn't care. He was seven years old and he wanted to go play with Lukas.

“Philip, you gotta do something for me okay?”

Philip nodded.

“You've got to stay here, okay? You've got to stay home today.”

Philip groaned, but agreed to make her happy. 

When Anne was gone though, he beelined it out of the cave, hoping to go play with Lukas again.

He swam straight into Ryan Kane, the shark tailed mer drug dealer.

“Well,” he said with a forced smile. “What do we have here?”

There was a cutting pain in Philip’s side. He looked down and saw a sharp rock pressed into his stomach, blood blossoming into the water. He looked back up at Ryan, whose eyes had gone black, lips pulled back over sharp teeth.

“Anne hasn't paid for her last supply,” Ryan said. “You're going to help me teach her a lesson.”

The pain was enormous, lacing through Philip’s body. He screamed and struggled against Ryan’s hold, but all his thrashing just made him bleed faster.

Philip was suddenly alone. Ryan has swam away, leaving Philip bleeding heavily into shark inhabited water. He pushed himself to swim fast, all the way up to the dock where he always met Lukas. He could see Lukas sat there, nervously waiting, but he didn't have the energy to call out. He didn't need to, because Lukas looked down into the water with a grin, but soon his face turned to one of terror.

“Dad!” Lukas screamed.

Philip heard a grown man racing up the docks, crouching by his son and asking him if he was okay.

“It's not me Dad, it's Philip!”

The man looked over the edge of the dock and shouted out in shock. He jumped into the water, grabbed Philip by the shoulder, and swam him to shore. Philip was terrified that he would expose himself, but he had been practicing his transformation so much over the summer that it happened naturally, and the man was holding a bleeding human bit in his arms, not a bleeding mer.

Philip was rushed to the hospital, and he thought that he would never see his friend Lukas again.


End file.
